Evaluation of a Whole Setting Approach (WSA) to food in Care Homes

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Evaluation of the Food for Life Better Care Whole Setting Approach (WSA) to food in care homes

  • IRAS ID

    243545

  • Contact name

    Mat Jones

  • Contact email

    matthew.jones@uwe.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of the West of England

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    N/A, N/A

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 7 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    The Soil Association’s Food for Life has received a £1.25 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund to develop and evaluate the Food for Life Better Care (FFL BC) programme. One of the key programme processes is to work with older people and key stakeholders to design together an approach to food that improves nutrition, well-being and reduces loneliness in care homes. Such an approach to food is known as a Whole Settings Approach (WSA). A Whole Settings Approach (WSA) to food means using food to improve care right across a care setting to include various aspects of food growing, eating and cooking as well as connecting people and the wider community.

    We intend to evaluate the benefits of the WSA to food in care homes with the aim of showing and presenting strong and clear accounts of the processes, learning, impact and potential impact of this approach in care home settings for residents, residents’ relatives, staff and volunteers. We will be carrying out this evaluation in two care homes - one in England and the other in Scotland.

    The results of our evaluation will show how a WSA may improve the experiences of older people residing in care homes – potentially boosting an interest in food, increasing appetite, supporting mobility and enhancing overall nutritional intake of older people.

  • REC name

    Social Care REC

  • REC reference

    18/IEC08/0018

  • Date of REC Opinion

    12 Jun 2018

  • REC opinion

    Unfavourable Opinion